StarBase 118 · News team

Federation News Service — redesign directions

We're rebuilding fednewsservice.com off WordPress and onto the same stack as the main site. Before any of that gets built, we want the news team to pick how it should look. Three directions below, same story in each.

What we're deciding, and what we're not

  1. This is a look-and-feel vote only. Same articles, same categories, same URLs — just a different skin.
  2. The headlines and photos are fake. They're placeholders so each direction has something real-looking to hold.
  3. Nothing here asks you to write more. The new site is being designed to look good when we publish twice a month, not daily.
  4. Evergreen pieces get rotated. Older features will resurface on the front page over time, so your work doesn't vanish after a week. Only genuinely new posts go out by RSS and email.

Direction A

Wire service

Broadsheet typography on warm paper, with gold rules. Extends the look our FNS email newsletter already uses.

Federation News Service
Stardate 240201.14  ·  Est. 2372
Special report · Starfleet

Valkyrie enters service as Starfleet quietly rewrites what a frontier cruiser is for

The ship carries fewer weapons than her class profile suggests, and three departments that did not exist a decade ago.

Also on the wire
Government

Kazleti Assembly advances heritage restrictions bill

Science

Subspace survey finds a corridor where none should exist

Life & Travel

A traveler's guide to the Tyrellian markets

Editorial

The Federation's quiet retreat from the Shoals

Reads like real journalism. Serious and timeless, and the least "fan site" of the three. Older features sit in it without looking dated. Downside: it's the most restrained, and it doesn't announce that it's Star Trek.

Direction B

24th-century broadcast

Dark field, condensed type, amber accents — the language of a Federation screen interface without literal LCARS panels.

FNS
Federation News Service
Special report · Starfleet

Valkyrie enters service as Starfleet rewrites the frontier cruiser

Fewer weapons than her class profile suggests, and three departments that did not exist a decade ago.

Government

Kazleti Assembly advances heritage bill

Cultural restrictions clear committee after a six-week deadlock.

Science

A subspace corridor where none should exist

Survey teams are refusing to speculate on record.

Editorial

The Federation's quiet retreat from the Shoals

Nobody voted for this. It happened anyway.

Feels in-universe on sight. Strongest first impression of the three. Downside: dark screen-interface styling can read more like a starship console than a publication, and it's harder on the eyes for a 2,000-word feature.

Direction C

Modern magazine

Big sans-serif headlines, lots of whitespace, rounded category labels — the look of a current digital magazine.

FEDERATION NEWS SERVICE
Special report

Valkyrie enters service as Starfleet rewrites the frontier cruiser

The ship carries fewer weapons than her class profile suggests, and three departments that did not exist a decade ago.

Government

Kazleti Assembly advances heritage bill

Cultural restrictions clear committee after a six-week deadlock.

Science

A subspace corridor where none should exist

Survey teams are refusing to speculate on the record.

Life & Travel

A traveler's guide to the Tyrellian markets

Go for the textiles. Stay for an argument about tea.

Cleanest and most familiar. Most comfortable to read and the easiest to build. Downside: it looks least like it belongs to the 24th century, and most like every other site on the internet.